Abstracts from the Goat Farm

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Saturday, September 29, 2018

(Fasten your seat belts, friends. Katherine has written our blog post today, and, oh boy is she on a roll!)

I
have a funny story to share with you, my dedicated readers. That something is
the story of the NPGA Region 2 Facebook Page - or Group - or whatever it is
now, I’m not really sure. This is a somewhat rambling story and an analysis of
what I observed happening on Facebook.

The
original Facebook group (let’s call it Facebook Page #1) was created by the
directors of the Region for the purpose of spreading important information.
This page was, for the most part, agenda items, with the occasional trivia
challenge mixed in. There was little to no post engagement, but the page
existed and that was enough.

It
came to my attention that a while ago somebody on the page began to make
trouble. They harassed the admin of Facebook Page #1, claiming that the admin
was responsible for issues that the agitator had with their membership renewal
(something that is, I remind you, up to the NPGA member to manage. How hard is
it to email the office and ask when your membership is due? Or to record it on
the calendar app that every
phone has now
?).
I digress.

This
harassment was the death knell of the original Region 2 information page
(Facebook Page #1), and it was taken down. Immediately thereafter--and I mean,
within minutes--a new group
popped up: “Region 2 Members of the National Pygmy Goat Association.” A bit
wordy of a title, but it gets the point across. Their mission? “It appears that Region 2 no longer has a Facebook page
open to everyone regardless of position or stance.” This is interesting, as I
know that the admin(s) of this new page was/were directly involved with the
downfall of Facebook Page #1. This new page (let’s call it Facebook Page
#2) is a closed group, whose purpose is to “disseminate information and discuss
issues regarding the association.” Fantastic! I am a huge fan of having a safe
and open environment to discuss current issues and disseminate information.

An
interesting thing to note on Facebook Page #2, or R2MotNPGA (my acronym for the
group), is that it is open to everyone, regardless of “stance” or “opinion.”
Time will tell if their posts remain “RESPECTFUL;” Region 2 has a nasty streak
a mile wide.

Enter
Facebook Page # 3. “NPGA Region 2 Public Information Portal” popped up nearly a
week later in response to Facebook Page # 2 (R2MotNPGA). The purpose of this newest
page is to post upcoming events and information, with minimal discussion, in
order to streamline the sharing of aforementioned information. A different
approach, but there is no conflict with the other Region 2 group; in fact, the
newest page encourages visitors to join the other group (Facebook Page #2, R2MotNPGA)
to discuss current events and issues. The public information portal pinned a
post to the top of its page, outlining the purpose and “rules” of posting,
including this line:

“ this
is not a page for general discussion unless otherwise mentioned.”

This line is promptly followed by a list of what the page is
actually for (unbiased sharing of information), and why it exists outside of the
other Facebook Page #2(R2MotNPGA).

Less
than an hour later, Facebook Page #2 (R2MotNPGA) responded to the creation of Facebook
Page #3 (NPGAR2PIP). (Wow, these acronyms are getting out of hand...). It is my belief that the admin of Facebook Page #2
(R2MotNPGA) did not fully read the post of NPGAR2PIP
(Facebook Page #3), as they posted this:

“UPDATE: FYI...Very
recently an unidentified admin has opened a NPGA Region 2 Public Information
Portal. So there is another page for members to view only as it has
limitations. No discussion is allowed.”

Now, I’m a teenager, and I love drama as much as the next kid,
so I watched with rapt interest as this spectacle unfolded. Is the “no
discussion is allowed” supposed to be an insult? If so, does the admin of
Facebook Page #2 not understand the concept of a “public information portal”?
Or maybe it’s a compliment? An acknowledgment of the fact that the information
portal (Facebook #3) establishes the group’s role as an open forum? It’s unclear.
I will say, though, one thing is for certain: the tone of the update is not
enthusiastic about this new Facebook Page #3.

I stayed out of it, but I did turn on notifications for both the
group and the page. This proved to be entertaining.

Facebook
Page #3 (NPGAR2PIP) quickly responded by adding the following statement to
their welcome blurb:

“This group
is to make important information easily accessible without inciting bullying or
harassment. Visitors are invited to make posts and comments that follow the
guidelines below…”

Which made it very clear that, A) the page admin had read Facebook
Page #2’s “UPDATE: FYI...,” and that B) they felt the urge to clarify the
purpose of an information portal. It’s also key to note Facebook
Page #3’s “bullying and harassment” statement, because I’m not totally
convinced that this mere proclamation will actually prevent bullying OR
harassment...

In fact, it’s very clear that Facebook page #2’s comment invitedbullying
and harassment. The admin of Facebook Page #3 (R2MotNPGA) made their intentions
towards the new page quite clear: openly hostile and unwelcoming, in direct
opposition with the supposed purpose of the group. It’s also important to note
at this point that the creator of the Facebook page #3 was anonymous, whereas the
admin of the Facebook page #3 was not. All I’m going to say is that some
people like attention while others actually believe in sharing information.

As a third-party observer, I have some interesting comments on
this whole situation (which is still playing out, for those interested in
following it).

1. I
personally hate Facebook groups where important information is shuffled to the
bottom because of lengthy discussion. If I need to find out, say, who is
judging a show, I want to see the post with those details, rather than having
to scroll through pages of comments.

2. That
said, discussion is important to creating a healthy and productive environment.

3.Why
do the adults of Region 2 feel the urge to engage in these... pissing matches?

4.Everything
that the leaders of Region 2 are doing is under a microscope. Every detail--every
Facebook post --is being watched by families, breeders, enthusiasts, and, yes,
even the youth. How they are behaving is being watched closely.

5.Grammatical
errors bother me, as does a lack of clear writing. (I apologize in advance if
this blog post has been confusing and/or difficult to read.) I’m still
struggling to understand the meaning of the line: “So there is another page for
members to view only as it has limitations.”

What does that mean? Yes, there is another page
for members to view. Is it “limited” because members can only view it? (which
is not true). Or should the sentence be interpreted as “another page for
members to view-only, as it has limitations”? (which is also not true, even
with the added punctuation). Is the easy access to public information
considered a “limitation”?

And the following line:
“No discussion is allowed.” Does this imply that no discussion is allowed within
the group (Facebook Page #2 group that is) regarding this new page? Or is the
statement implying that discussion is not allowed on the new page (Facebook #3)?
(Which is, once again, not true; and the admin who posted to the Facebook Page
#2 group evidently did not read the purpose and goals of the Public Information
Portal—Facebook #3). It’s enough to make my head spin, because no matter how
you look at it, this is one admin slandering an anonymous,
seemingly-well-meaning page, and trying to deflect attention back onto...
themselves.

This whole Facebook thing
is important to me, deeply important, because Region 2 has been anything but a
healthy and safe environment for me, and an honest, open forum has so much
potential for clearing issues. I keep asking myself: is this new group,
Facebook Page #2, really open for ME to join in the discussion? After the way I
was treated in person and online by the creators of the group, am I truly
“welcome”? After the public ridicule and shaming, the bad mouthing, back-stabbing,
and trash-talking I have endured--AS A YOUTH--should
I even try to speak up now?

Here we go again. What message are these adults spreading to the
youth and families who are interested in pygmy goats (and not in drama)? They
are saying that as long as they get what they want, no one else’s opinion
matters.

I think a lot about a particular experience I had a couple of
months ago at a show. I brought two of my yearling bottle baby girls to support
the club hosting the show, even though one goat’s stifle (read: knee) had gone (read:
popped out) months ago, and the other doe had an atrocious rear end (read:
ugly). They’re my pets, my babies, and I wanted to support the club by helping
them make sanction and money. While I was in the ring showing my goat, I
watched a member (and NPGA-licensed judge!) of Region 2 smirk and turn to his
companion, making a blatant I’m-blocking-my-mouth-so-you-can’t-hear me-talk-shit
gesture. I immediately knew what the sniggering was about; so, after the class
ended I offered to let the companion (who was learning about goat structure)
feel the goat’s faults. The licensed judge turned to me, and snidely said (with
no invitation): “You don’t need to feel them to see the faults. I would get rid
of those goats. They aren’t good for breeding or showing.”

Taken aback, I responded: “They’re my pets. It doesn’t matter if
they win, or if I never breed them. I’m here to support the club.”

To which he responded with something along the lines of: “Right,
you can afford to keep them.”

This snarky statement triggered a lot of red flags in my mind:
unsolicited judging, for starters. I hadn’t asked him to evaluate my animals; I
was talking to his companion. Then, the comment about what I could “afford.”
Was it any of his business to make a jab at my personal life or financial
situation? To try to make me feel bad about being able to afford to keep pets?
Is it a bad thing that I keep around pet-quality animals because I love them?

I apologize for going off on that tangent. It bothers me, just
like the “there is another page for members to view only as it has limitations”
issue. Honestly, I think a simple comma could’ve made that sentence clear and
elegant.

Facebook Page #2 is not there
for the “little guys,” regardless of what they may say. I’ve been “the little
guy” and I watched these adults enter their goats into the youth shows solely to
win and to pick up that precious one-third of a grand that they desperately
wanted. I’ve watched adult-owned wethers win a youth show and, when the
time came to sign the championship paperwork, the adults signed with a flourish
and loudly declared, “It doesn’t matter, the goat doesn’t have to be
youth-owned!” What? It’s a youth show. I’ve watched these breeders and
judges give and receive grand championships to their friends and fellow judges
when another goat clearly deserved it. On the one occasion when I spoke up at a
meeting, I was mocked, belittled and marginalized. I never felt welcome to
participate in a meeting again.

So, what does this drama mean for NPGA? How can NPGA ever expect
to retain youth if their adults behave this way? The change of directors on the
board (what could be cited as the source for this recent Facebook pissing
match) will most likely mean absolutely nothing for the overall direction of
the organization. This problem isn’t exclusively in Region 2, either, and vain
adults have a way of ignoring the real issues and generating their own
self-serving agendas. Everybody wants to feel important; even Iwant
to feel important, which I why I’m writing this blog post.

If you are an NPGA member, a breeder, a judge, or even an
enthusiast, ask yourself this: how many people have you introduced to pygmy
goats? How many of those people have remained involved? How many times have you
said something mean or rude about somebody - behind their back or to their
face? And how many times have you first ignored and then made fun of the family
and the youth, with their handful of goats, that desperately need somebody to
help them get started?

I know the answer to these questions for a lot of the adults in
Region 2. I know how they’ve pushed away the youth in the Region; I’ve heard
them mock youth breeders and exhibitors, making fun of their goats, their
families, and their backgrounds. I’ve watched them turn on each other like a
pack of dogs, being two-faced and cruel to their “friends.” I’ve watched
quietly for a long, long time, and I’m sick of watching quietly.

I’m going to go out and make a change in my Region; at least,
I’m going to try. And I’m going to try to make a change in NPGA, because I
don’t want other youth and families to be pushed out of something they love by
self-absorbed adults.

Monday, September 3, 2018

Livestock Guardian Dog & Granny help new mama clean off baby Sofie. Is this abusive, too?

OK, so that’s kind of a strong
statement to lead off with. But, dammit, reactive “animal rights” activists make
me so mad I could spit. Spit, dammit. And my day started off so well, too.

I was drinking my coffee on this
fine Labor Day when Katherine told me about a Facebook tirade on our friend’s
page. The friend had posted a memory of her all-time favorite goat. In this
happy memory, the goat and girl were smiling for the camera with ribbons
galore. To protect the innocent, I will not share the exact picture but here’s
something similar to give you the idea.

Katherine and Pupa

The sad part of the post is that
the goat died in kidding later that year, much to the dismay of the young
breeder. Hence the commemorative 1-year memory.

We’ve all been there. I’ve written about the intense emotions of raising goats. Long days and nights
waiting for a goat to go into labor, watching for subtle signs, rushing home
from school, burning rubber out of the driveway at 2:00am to help someone else’s
goat in labor. Hours in the barn/garage waiting for a goat to give birth. The unimaginable
stress of a complicated birth: pullers, lube, various repositioning techniques,
crying goats, crying people. Tears of unadulterated frustration, tears of
abject grief.

And that’s not even when you have
to make the hard call to put a goat down. In that scenario multiply all of the
above by 10.

So, back to our friend’s post.
There she is smiling with her now-deceased favorite goat. The post was meant to
pay homage to her goat, to her relationship with her pet, and to her love for
this animal. Back in early 2018 when she put her goat down, she posted photos
of her “tribute wall” to her goat: a wall full of ribbons, plaques and photos attesting
to the wonderful partnership of the goat and its handler. Awww, big smiles.
That’s why we are “in goats.”

The memory included a collage of
photos about her goat. Again, to protect her identity and privacy, I won’t use
her photos. But I will include a similar montage of our own goat. (We adored
this goat and the myriad of life experiences we had with her. She lived 11 or 12
wonderful years and taught us so much.)

Pupa

At first, the responses to our friend
were all normal – like, like, like, “that was last year!,” love, tears, etc. But
then… there was this left-field response:

I scratched my head in baffled
confusion.

Slaughter? Um, what slaughter? The goat
was euthanized after a bad kidding. Her owner was right there with her the
entire time – scratching her shoulder and holding her hoof. Slaughter? What the
hell? And … Jesus…? What does he have to do with this? Protein? It’s as if we
were transported to parallel universe where you say one thing and the “universal
translator” comes up with something totally different.

Um, right-o. Our buddy can account
for each and every one of her goats. Not just their whereabouts, either. In
fact, I will bet you $10 right here and now that she could recite--off the top
of her head--the registered show name, barn name and three degrees of pedigree for
each and every one of her goats… AS WELL AS their favorite treats and individual
idiosyncrasies. I know Katherine can. I just asked her.

And we aren’t talking about one or
two goats here; these girls have 50-100 goats at any given time.

Where is this verbal abuse about
“animal abuser,” “Jesus” and “protein” coming from? I’m disappointed to say
that, after stalking my friend’s page, this is not the first false accusation
of goat abuse she has received.

My buddy is a better person than I,
‘cuz I woulda blasted The Activist. Like a true Christian, my friend let it go.

What really frosts me is that The Activist
jumped on this post making some blatantly wrong assumptions. She viewed the post
through her “save-the-animals-from-the-evil-humans” filter. And then she
reacted. Without thinking. (As my dear ex-husband used to say, “There’s a
difference between being open minded and having a hole in your head.)

The Activist obviously didn’t read any
further on my friend’s page or she would’ve seen a slew of loving posts about baby
goats, about piling goats into the cab of her truck when the trailer got a flat
tire, about preferring goats to people, etc. etc. Totally normal stuff in the
Pygmy Goat World.

So, how did The Activist even find
my buddy? All I can figure is that The Activist was trolling around Facebook
doing some random search or another--maybe “goat”? But wait. I just did that
search and got this:

Certainly nothing about
slaughtering goats. Or maybe those search results are based on my preferences?
On a complicated algorithm I’m certain. Facebook seems to think I like cute
videos of animals (which I do).

So, what does Facebook think The Activist
likes to see? Yikes. If you include “slaughter” in your search you do come across
some gruesome images and videos. But, not about Pygmy Goats. And not about my
friend.

I know my friend has an active and
successful breeding and sales program, and I suspect she sources a lot of sales
off of Facebook (since Katherine does, too). But, again, if you search “goat
sales” you get lots of cute baby goat photos.

I have yet to unravel this
mystery. Perhaps The Activist and her buds are targeting my friend? God knows why, though. (Oooo, there it is … I invoked
religion…! Per The Activist’s accusation.)

I remember a story in the newspaper
a while back about an Animal Rights group (that shall remain nameless lest I
use my voice as free advertising). In the middle of the night they raided a goat
farm based on some misguided notion that the goats were being mistreated.

They found a baby goat with a runny
nose and some lice and gallantly "rescued" it from the evil farmer. OK, I admit I
am skeptical based on my own experience with goats. Runny noses and lice are
not uncommon; they are yucky and sub-optimal, but not earth shattering. In
fact, I bet I could find some goats that fit that description in my field right
now. Hell, I could probably find CHILDREN with runny noses and lice, too. But I digress…

Back to our story. Our Heroic
Activist steals the baby goat, ripping it away from its mother. And what do you
think happened? The baby goat got SICKER… because it wasn’t eating…because it didn’t
know how to nurse off of a bottle…because it had a mama. (I refer you to my post
about bottle feeding baby goats. It’s not as easy as you – or The Activist—might
think).

Fortunately, The Activist took the
kid to a vet who dosed it up with some antibiotics and convinced it to
eat from a bottle. The baby survived and was re-homed with some seemingly-sensible
people who now love the little animal.

But, the story easily could’ve had
a different, tragic ending because of the rash act of The Activist.

Time for a breather. I need to get my
blood pressure back down.

Here’s a cute baby goat video of the antics of our
goat “Sofie” and her farmyard friends.

The Antics of Sofie

Yes, of course, there are some bad farmers out
there. And, yes, some animals are raised in deplorable conditions (people, too,
for that matter).

As a society we must be careful
not to view everything exclusively through our personal biases. Just because there are some
bad people, doesn’t mean all people are bad.